The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between contraceptive method choice, sexual risk and various demographic and social factors. Data were collected on 378, 15- to 24-year-old women, recruited from health clinics and through community outreach in Northern California. Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the association of predictors with contraceptive method used at last sex. Asian and Latina women were less likely to use any method. Women who were raised with a religion, or thought they were infertile, were also less likely to use any method. Women with multiple partners were generally less likely to use any method, but were more likely to use barrier methods when they did use one. Few women (7%) were dual method users. Women appear to act in a rational fashion within their own social context and may use no methods at all or use methods that are less effective for pregnancy prevention but offer more protection from sexually transmitted infections.